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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29259081">original spin</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/FuhkinIero/pseuds/FuhkinIero'>FuhkinIero</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>aspiring fires [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood: Lost Days</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Creepy Roman Sionis, Disapproving Family, Hurt Jason Todd, M/M, Minor Character Death, Near Death Experiences, Protective Batfamily (DCU), Protective Dick Grayson, Protective Slade Wilson, because i love to torture my boys, dick's POV</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-04-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 12:42:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,235</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29259081</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/FuhkinIero/pseuds/FuhkinIero</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Dick would just like for Jason to have self-preservation instincts and stop sleeping with dangerous mercenaries, was that too much to ask?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Batfamily Members &amp; Jason Todd, Dick Grayson &amp; Jason Todd, Jason Todd/Slade Wilson, Tim Drake &amp; Jason Todd</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>aspiring fires [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2148567</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>376</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. where you're swimming or sinking</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>not ready to give up this dynamic yet so i'm making it a series! if you haven't read the first one, i recommend you do that before reading this one</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Dick anxiously watched Tim attempt to wake Jason, all of them filled with worry about him. Black Mask’s men- way more competent than they expected- had gone after Jay much worse than anyone else. The rest of them had been taken out by tranquilizers (which was extremely embarrassing), and before unconsciousness finally set in, Dick watched Jason go down hard by some asshole dropping concrete on his hood hard enough to crack it. Jason had laid motionless as they kept kicking him, and the fact that he </span>
  <em>
    <span>still wasn’t moving</span>
  </em>
  <span> when the rest of them were awake and working on getting out of their unfortunately very proficient bondage wasn’t a great sign. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The relief Dick felt when Tim kicked Jason in the shin again and finally got a response hit him like a truck. Jay groaned slightly and stiffly tilted his head in their direction, obviously in pain. Dick furrowed his brow when he saw his brother discreetly press something inlaid in his jacket sleeve, seemingly too busy trying to get his bearings to see the questioning look sent his way. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The tension rocketed when they heard footsteps coming their way, only getting that couple second warning before Black Mask strode into the room cockily, his henchmen staying out of his way and standing in the background nervously. Not every bad guy was as confident as Roman when walking into a room full of Bats, which meant they were really fucked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hello again, boys,” Black Mask greeted, annoyingly chipper and Dick could only imagine the dumb, self satisfied smile under that stupid mask.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Black Mask,” Bruce started, full gravely Batman voice. Not one to be easily intimidated, Mask didn’t move, and Dick’s stomach dropped when he saw Sionis give Jason all of his attention. It was no secret that the man hated Red Hood most out of all of them, Jay having done way more to fuck up Mask’s business than all of them combined. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span> “What do you want,” Bruce said, obviously also not liking the way Roman eyed him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ignoring him completely, Black Mask strolled up to Jason and knocked on the hood a couple times, and only those who knew him fairly well could tell how much that hurt him. “You alive in there, Hood? My boys got you pretty good,” Mask asked ominously cheerful. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Go fuck yourself, Roman,” Jason responded immediately, bite slightly taken out with how much slur was in his voice.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Aw, don’t be like that,” Sionis responded smugly, already being so annoying, and crouched in front of him, way too close in Dick’s opinion. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Even with the cracked hood on, all of them could feel the full force of Jay’s glare. “The fuck you want this time?” he asked, thankfully with a lot less slur and twice as much annoyance. Now that he was sounding more like himself, Dick could worry a bit less about how bad Jason’s head injury was.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I want a lot of things,” Roman started, and unfortunately started trailing one of his hands up Jason’s thigh. The amount of anger suddenly flooding Dick’s entire body was probably unhealthy, but how </span>
  <em>
    <span>dare </span>
  </em>
  <span>he touch his little brother like that. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well if you want to keep that hand, I’d take it off of me,” he growled back angrily before Dick could start yelling. He didn’t seem worried, but Jason was unfortunately a very good actor (not to mention that his anger also tended to override self preservation instincts, which never failed to make Dick even more protective). </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Roman just laughed in Jay’s face and gripped his thigh with all of his strength, which was probably more than slightly uncomfortable. “You’re not really in the position to be making threats, Hood. I’m not scared of you just cause you offed Joker,” he added, which was not really what any of them wanted to hear. It was sort of silently agreed by all of them to just… let that go. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hearing Jason’s vulnerability show just before leaving the cave after Joker was killed hurt all of them in so many ways. They all knew that if they continued to push the point they might lose Jason for good, so Joker dying and Deathstroke in general just wasn’t discussed again. It’d been almost three months since that all went down, but it didn’t mean it wasn’t still a sore spot, and the name being spat in Jason’s face like that made him even more tense. Dick ached to give his brother a hug, even if he would probably get stabbed for it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thankfully Roman got to the point, though he was still uncomfortably close and his hand was worryingly high on Jason’s thigh. “You and yours have meddled with my business for the last time,” he said, gesturing to Dick and the others who were also fuming. “So as much fun as our interactions are, it’s time for you to die.” The sound was punctuated by the sound of his cocking gun, and Dick immediately froze, even as Bruce tried twice as hard to get out of his heavy restraints. The panic was starting to grip him, and he opened his mouth to try to distract Roman, do </span>
  <em>
    <span>anything</span>
  </em>
  <span> at all. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Before he could even try, a gunshot sounded from above them and Black Mask was stumbling away with most of the hand that had previously been touching Jason’s thigh blown off. It was a brief display of skilled marksmanship that made Jason light up slightly and Dick suddenly dread what was coming. Roman didn’t have a chance to order his thugs to return fire before he got six rounds to the chest. Everyone, including the hired guys stared at the body in shock, then Deathstroke was dropping from the rafters and Mask’s men ran away immediately. Dick wasn’t surprised; if they were already nervous, having Deathstroke the Terminator shoot down their boss would probably make them shit themselves.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Deathstroke didn’t bother going after them in favor of quickly walking over to where Jason was slumped with what was probably relief. At the same time as Bruce growled, “Deathstroke, what have you done,” Dick yelled, “Get the fuck away from him!” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Both of them were ignored by the two of them as if they weren’t even there. Slade knelt next to Jason and broke the chain with a slight effort, Dick narrowing his eyes at the way Jason seemed to be radiating pure happiness, not that he’d really seen that from his brother too often. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What took you so long?” Jason asked, still slurring a bit, and Dick suddenly remembered Jay pressing a button on his jacket. He could dissect how fucked it was that his brother had a panic button for Deathstroke later, because he was still frantically watching the interaction for any ill intent. Dick had the feeling Slade was glaring at Jason through the mask, but his hands were steady and gentle as he released the catch in his hood and took it off of him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Jason’s face was pale and there was blood on the side of his face where a shard of his helmet had clipped him. Dick gaped in surprise when Jason passively let Slade take off his domino, still ignoring the rest of them. Dick was of the assumption that the thing between the two of them was purely a sexual thing, but this, Jason just letting Slade see his entire face with his posture so open and trusting, told a different story.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dick was speechless as he watched Jason patiently sit through Slade confirming the fact that he had a pretty bad concussion and checking for other injuries (to the point where it was close to fussing more than anything else, which was a mindfuck of its own) before finally batting him away and standing up shakily. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You know, if you want me to kill someone for you again, you can just ask. You don’t have to get kidnapped first,” Slade commented dryly, hovering close enough to be able to catch Jason if he fell. Dick could practically </span>
  <em>
    <span>feel </span>
  </em>
  <span>Bruce’s judgment, Dick trying to keep himself from feeling the same kind of frustration. It wasn’t Jason’s fault Slade killed Sionis, but he had to have known what calling him there would have done. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Aw, but then you wouldn’t get to be my knight in shining armor,” Jay responded cheekily, still solidly ignoring all of them. Dick really hated the dynamic he was seeing, because their body language and casual comfortableness with each other said so much about how much time they spent together. None of them said anything as Jason limped the few feet towards Roman’s body and started checking his pockets, luckily finding the key for the padlocks on the others’ chains. He made his way to unlock Tim first, obviously figuring he might be the safest option. Tim had admittedly managed to be the least judgmental out of all of them, even though he also didn’t like any part of this. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It is a wonder you survived this long,” Slade commented before realizing what he said, holding a hand up to stop Jason from making a death joke they all knew was coming. Dick really hated that Deathstroke apparently spent enough time around his brother to expect those kinds of things. “Don’t say it. Just proves even more that you need me.” Jason laughed, shaking his head at the claim but didn’t say anything to refute it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hang on!” Dick interrupted, mostly exasperated at this point. “He doesn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>need</span>
  </em>
  <span> you, what the hell, and you can’t just kill anyone that threatens him!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Why not?” Slade responded, and it was obvious that Jason was holding back laughter as he handed Tim the key to unlock the others. Dick gaped at him angrily, not sure how to answer that, before he turned to address Jason who swayed slightly on his feet. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’re seriously okay with this?!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Jason shrugged. “I mean, he’s kinda got a point given how many times he’s saved my life at this point, and you know I don’t give a shit about the killing.” When it looked like Bruce was going to say something about that, Jay quickly continued. “Before you give me a lecture or threaten to kick me out of the family, I’m gonna remind you that I didn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>actually</span>
  </em>
  <span> ask him to kill anyone, and I am old enough to make my own bad decisions.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Are you calling me a bad decision?” Slade asked, smirk evident in his voice.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Without looking away from the others, he simply answered, “Definitely,” and smiled at Slade’s amused snort.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No one’s going to kick you out of the family,” Dick said earnestly, even as he glared at Slade over his brother’s shoulder. “That doesn’t mean we’re just okay with this.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Tim cleared his throat once everyone was unchained and standing. “I mean, it’s not like we can stop him from… associating with Deathstroke. We’d appreciate it if the bodycount didn’t go any higher though.” Wow, betrayed by his own brother. He didn’t understand how Tim wasn’t more concerned about this. Jason chuckled a bit at the calm and awkward argument (and probably at whatever Dick’s expression was). </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well if you don’t mind, Slade and I are going to go… </span>
  <em>
    <span>associate </span>
  </em>
  <span>somewhere else,” he said, and okay, Dick was amused despite himself. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hood,” Bruce cut in harshly, and Jay rolled his eyes, wincing again. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Seriously, can we not do this right now? My head hurts like hell and I just got felt up by Black Mask, okay, I feel like shit. I just wanna get the fuck outta here, k?” He asked, sounding a bit desperate. Just the admission of pain was a lot coming from Jason, especially in front of anyone who wasn’t part of the family. After a tense moment, Bruce sighed and nodded. “Great,” Jason said before turning around and nearly overbalancing. Slade was immediately there to steady him, and Dick silently watched as Jay just sighed gratefully and leaned into him. </span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <span>Dick really wished letting them leave together wasn’t the right thing to do when the mercenary steered him to the exit with an arm around his shoulders. It just felt… wrong. “Please tell me you drove here,” they heard Jason say quietly</span>
  <b>,</b>
  <span> huffing a small laugh at something Slade whispered back, then they were out of sight. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. can either of us be sure</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>It was rare for Tim to get so heated about something, which usually meant Dick was being even more of an idiot than usual.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Dick frowned at the screen on the bat computer showing the pictures the upscale restaurant’s security cam picked up of Slade and Jason, both in fairly nice suits. A part of him really wanted this to have been because of an undercover job or something, but the way they held hands and smiled at each other didn’t say that in the slightest. Before all of this, not a single part of Dick would have thought it possible for Jason to be even a little bit sappy, but here he fucking was, giving Slade Wilson of all people heart eyes. Even more puzzling was the fact that it was clearly reciprocated. He glared at one in particular that showed Jason laughing as Slade gave him this irritatingly genuine besotted look. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Stop brooding, Dick,” Tim commented tiredly from behind him. “We need to trust that Jason knows what he’s doing.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Does he, though? Slade never really messed with Jason when he was Robin, he doesn’t-“</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’re an idiot if you think Jason doesn’t know everything about Deathstroke,” Tim responded bluntly. “I know he acts like a dumbass most of the time, but there’s no doubt that as soon as he found out Deathstroke was into him he did a lot of research and knew exactly who he was dealing with.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dick turned an incredulous glare on his little brother. “So we have to just let this happen because getting together with Deathstroke was an </span>
  <em>
    <span>informed</span>
  </em>
  <span> decision?!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Tim responded, raising an eyebrow. “Besides, we all know if we try to stop Jason from seeing Slade, he might run. We already have a lot of control over his work life, we can’t try to take control of his personal life too.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“He’s right,” Bruce said as he entered the room. “I don’t like it either, but we can’t risk alienating Jason.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dick was reminded of Jason yelling at them, telling them that Slade did what they wouldn’t do for him. It had been one hell of a wake up call. None of them had really thought of Jason wanting to kill Joker as anything other than revenge, which in hindsight was so stupid of them. It was just… it was too easy for them to brand Jason’s actions when he first came back to Gotham as senseless violence with that simple of a goal. Dick supposed anything else would have hurt too much when they couldn’t do anything to help it, but that was a pretty shitty excuse. They were </span>
  <em>
    <span>lucky</span>
  </em>
  <span> that Jason stuck around if he’d been harboring those kinds of feelings for so long, compromising his beliefs to stay in their good graces.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Tim was right when he said having so much control over his vigilante life was already pushing it, all of them knowing by now that they absolutely didn’t deserve Jason’s loyalty. Dick had been half surprised when Jason came back to the cave a week after Joker’s death to help with a case, and it was purely the fact that he’d never seen Jason so lighthearted that he said nothing about Deathstroke. That didn’t mean it didn’t infuriate and concern him when he saw his little brother with Slade Wilson of all people, </span>
  <em>
    <span>months</span>
  </em>
  <span> after the Joker incident.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Still, this wasn’t okay, and he didn’t understand why no one else was worried. “Bruce, how are you not more concerned about this?” Dick asked, thinking of Black Mask’s file now reading ‘Deceased.’ “We both know obsession can end up with the object of their obsession dead or worse. This is </span>
  <em>
    <span>dangerous,</span>
  </em>
  <span> and you know it.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Dick, think about it,” Tim cut in before Bruce could respond, sounding impatient. “Slade has saved Jason’s life at least twice by now, and killed two high profile Rogues for free, which is a big fucking deal for mercenaries. As far as we know, he hasn’t asked for anything in return, and by the way he was visibly worried about Jason’s wellbeing, he has his best interest in mind. Sure, this could turn dangerous, but you’re forgetting that Jay is extremely competent. He’s got more tricks up his sleeve than even we know about, and is obviously skilled enough to be able to take care of himself. If Slade tries </span>
  <em>
    <span>anything</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Jason can handle it. We need to stop underestimating him.” Tim paused to take a deep breath. It was rare for his little brother to get so heated about something, which usually meant Dick was being even more of an idiot than usual, especially since it seemed like Bruce was content with letting Tim handle this. “I know he targeted you when you were Robin, and it’s hard to shake that off, but his feelings for Jason are genuine and definitely reciprocated. As insane as it sounds, Slade is good for Jason, and if you looked past your own shit for one fucking second, you’d realize that.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It made sense (it was Tim talking so of course it did), but it still didn’t feel right. Tim was unfortunately right about his feelings toward Slade, the memories of being so scared of Deathstroke still vivid, especially when he had first figured out that he was in no way skilled enough to take the man down on his own. Jason though… he had </span>
  <em>
    <span>won </span>
  </em>
  <span>that fight on the rooftop against Slade, and somehow matched him in a swordfight, and if he had been remotely scared or intimidated he never let it show. It just seemed strange for a relationship to start like that, and how Jason went from ‘Deathstroke is attacking me I might die’ to ‘being in a relationship with this man is a great idea’ was beyond Dick. It didn’t help that he rarely understood Jason anyways. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The defeated sigh that left his mouth was entirely involuntary as he rubbed his eyes exhaustedly. “You’re right,” Dick admitted, still absolutely hating it. “I won’t do anything, but I still don’t trust Slade.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Noted,” Tim responded, sounding much more smug instead of annoyed. “Now delete those pictures and stop stalking them before Jason finds out.”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>sorry this is sort of a filler chapter but i thought it was kinda necessary <br/>let me know your thoughts! i always love reading your comments!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. it’s just the world</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>dick has an epiphany</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“Wanna come with Steph and I to Jason’s place?” Tim asked out of nowhere. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Why?” Dick responded immediately, because he’d never been invited to Jay’s place and they never really hung out outside of work. It’s not that he wouldn’t love to be a bigger part of his brother’s life, it’s just that he’d never really been able to click with him, even (maybe even especially) before Jason had died. They got along for the most part these days, and they hung out during breaks on patrol sometimes, but it was extremely rare for them to just hang out for no actual reason. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We’re going over to bully him into making us food, and since you’ve decided to stop being a broody stalker, Jay said he’s cool with us bringing you the next time we came over.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dick immediately agreed, even as he pondered how often Jason apparently hung out with Tim and Steph for this to be just a natural occurrence. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Jay!” Steph greeted as soon as he let them into his apartment, holding out a fist that Jason immediately bumped.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sup, nerds,” Jason said, raising an eyebrow at Dick but refraining from commenting. “I’m guessing you’re about to ask me to make you dinner.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yep,” Tim confirmed, grinning at Jason’s irritated glare. “Before you complain about us not being able to afford us eating all of your food, I already wired money for groceries into your third bank account.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And you love cooking, so you know you’re not gonna have a terrible time,” Steph added, casually walking over to lounge on the couch. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Guys-“ Jason tried before Steph cut him off. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Remember when you tried to kill poor Timmy?” She asked, Tim immediately putting on his best ‘I’m cute and innocent and hurting me would be like kicking a puppy’ expression. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m not falling for that,” Jason said tiredly, rolling his eyes at Tim’s pout. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Come on, look how thin and frail I am, I need to eat food.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alfred makes you dinner every night,” Jason argued, which was an excellent point. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, but the demon is there and even looking at his stupid face ruins my appetite,” Tim responded immediately, making Jason grin. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Fine, you fuckers can stay, but you owe me.” He caved much sooner than Dick thought he would. “Just stay out of my fucking kitchen, okay? Especially you, Dickhead, I don’t want anything to catch on fire.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Well that was just completely unnecessary. “Come on, I’m not </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> bad.” The look Jason sent his way said everything he needed to say. “Fine, I won’t touch anything.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The night went surprisingly well. It was nice being around Jason when he wasn’t obviously on edge, this version of him seeming very comfortable. He was still occasionally an asshole, but everything he said was more funny than it was hurtful. It was strange how at ease Jay seemed to be, and it dawned on him that he really should listen to Tim more when it came to their brother, because apparently they knew each other very well. He was also a phenomenal cook, and Dick immediately understood why Tim and Steph wanted him to make them food. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Of course, the night couldn’t go without a hitch. Halfway through everyone eating dinner, a very loud alarm sounded from Jason’s phone. Jay immediately went into action, standing and quickly moving to arm himself to the teeth, moving with the kind of urgency that usually meant the world was going to end in less than a minute. He didn’t even take the time to put any actual armor on, instead just throwing on a regular leather jacket and a domino.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>What’s going on?!” Dick asked, all of them standing and getting ready for… something.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Jason didn’t even look at them as he hid another knife on himself. “Slade’s in trouble. Stay here if you want, but I probably won’t be back tonight.” With that, he rushed out the window and left the three of them behind. It took about a minute for Dick to process what the hell just happened, and it gave him a lot to think about. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He had been shocked when he found out Jason had a panic button for Deathstroke, but the fact that Slade had one for Jason was so fucking bizarre. It seemed like such a small thing, but for some reason it just shook him more than he would have thought, and it took a moment to realize why. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Slade had killed for Jason, he’d come when Jason called, and he had shown utter devotion and obsession for Jason. For the first time he fully realized that his evaluation of the two of them was so wrong. The </span>
  <em>
    <span>feelings</span>
  </em>
  <span> were mutual between them, seemingly no imbalance whatsoever. Slade might have shown it through very loud and deadly romantic gestures, but that didn’t mean Jason wasn’t absolutely there all the way. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The two of them had the complete faith that the other would be there when they needed them, Jason making that promise just as much as Slade, and the look on Jay’s face before he left promised nothing but pain for anyone who got in his way. If it weren’t for Bruce, Dick had no doubt Jason would kill for Slade if he needed to. The protectiveness was there for Jason just as much as it was the other way around. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The relationship between them was so much more equal than he had ever imagined it being. Yes, Slade was undoubtedly infatuated with Jason to the point of insanity, but Tim was right. Jason wasn’t a loose cannon making dumb decisions on a whim just because he could. This wasn’t about the allure of danger, about the fact that someone would do something that drastic for him, and he needed to start giving his brother more credit. Jay had known who Slade was and what he’d done, and he’d fallen for him anyway.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey, you good?” Steph asked loudly, breaking him out of his spiraling thoughts. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, I’m fine,” he assured them, ignoring their shared look. “How often do you guys come over here anyways?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Tim shrugged. “I don’t know, lately fairly often. We finally started hanging out after the whole Joker thing.” Apparently sensing that required elaboration, Tim made pointed eye contact. “A couple days after he left the cave I found him on patrol and apologized for how we handled it. It was fucked for us to immediately look at Joker's death as a bad thing when someone he murdered was literally in the room with us.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Jesus, Dick really didn’t waste a chance on fucking up. He hadn’t even </span>
  <em>
    <span>thought</span>
  </em>
  <span> of apologizing to Jason, too wrapped up in what was happening between him and Slade to actually talk to his brother about it. From then on, Dick promised himself to do better. Even though he still didn’t really approve, he’d try to be supportive of whatever the hell Jason wanted, including his relationship with Slade. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>sorry this took 1,000 years midterms killed me (i also haven’t slept in 30+ hrs so if there are mistakes pls forgive me)</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>honestly i just wanted to write some of dick's pov in this universe</p></blockquote></div></div>
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